OnLive to offer 'OnLive Game Portal' service without monthly fee

The pricing scheme announced this week by OnLive, in which you'd pay $15 a month for the privilege of buying and renting games, won't be the only way to interact with the streaming service. In addition to that "OnLive Game Service," the company will open an "OnLive Game Portal" sometime after the June 17 launch of the main service. It sounds a lot like the browser-based streaming offered by competitor Gaikai.

The Game Portal is a free browser-based service that allows streaming of a selection of demos, as well as a limited number of full games for rent -- for a per-game fee, without the monthly charge. The selection of games is limited not just in number, but also "subject to available OnLive service capacity and whatever usage limits are associated with each given demo."

The Portal will work with the OnLive set top box, in addition to the browser plug-in. It is expected to roll out sometime in 2010, after the June 17 launch of the main service.